If you are an online publisher, and someone want to place an ad on your website, why would you refuse the opportunity? There are many reasons why you would (and should) turn down certain advertisers.

They Do Not Fit Your Website: Do you run a gambling website? If not, would links or banners to gambling websites really fit? Would your visitors appreciate them? Gambling and pharmacy sites try to get links from anywhere they can. If they do not fit the classification of your website or are from a distinctly different neighborhood, you should consider refusing the ad. Linking to shady domains could actually cause search engines to penalize your site.

They Offer Bad Terms: Sometimes someone will want to pay you to link to them FOREVER for a set price. These are bad terms, and you should not bite at them, even if the money is good. Getting a one-time fee for a permanent link could prevent you from selling that space when your site is more successful and you can command better advertising rates. In short - if you think the terms are too good for the advertiser, they probably are.

The Ad Goes Against Your Ethics: While it helps to be flexible and work with advertisers whenever possible, sometimes you just can’t accept that once-per-day-700X400-pixel popup ad request. If an ad is too intrusive, you may tick off the most important party of all - your visitors. In the end, its a balancing act between what you want, your advertiser wants, your visitors will accept, and the money exchanged.

The Advertiser Is Likely A Spammer: This is similar to the first point above. If you think (or know) that the potential advertiser engages in naughty Internet practices, do not link to them.

Always check out your potential advertisers, particularly if you are directly linking to them from your website. Visit the website, check out their backlinks, how long the domain has been around, and read what others are saying about them.

To avoid attracting unwanted advertisers, clearly post your ad requirements on your Marketing page and/or your Terms of Use page. State exactly what opportunities are available for what time periods and, if possible, provide ad spec examples. It’s a lot easier to refer to your existing policies than to arbitrarily ‘make up’ a reason why you are refusing an ad. Being up front is always the best policy.

And if you have to turn down the occasional advertiser, just remember that you are simply leaving room for other advertisers who will better fit and ultimately provide better value to your visitors.

In the early days, banner ads were the standard ad unit across the Web, with a size of 468X60 pixels. Over time, standard ad sizes changed. (Anyone remember microbuttons?) Nowadays, with average higher screen resolutions and larger monitors, ad units are larger than ever. Where there was once banner ads, now Leaderboard ads (728 x 90 pixels) reside.

So who sets these standards, and if these standard ad sizes change from time to time, where can they be found?

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an association dedicated to helping online, Interactive broadcasting, email, wireless and Interactive television media companies increase their revenues.

IAB Ad Unit Guidelines are intended to create a set of standard ad sizes for interactive marketing and advertising. Almost all marketers and publishers use these standards when buying and selling advertising. In addition to banner sizes, they also list guidelines for email, pop-up and pop-under, and rich media advertising.

As an advertiser, these standards make it easier to offer similar creatives across different publishers. As a publisher, these standards in mind when determining your advertising opportunities.

While the standard banner and leaderboard ads will remain popular, ad sizes will continue to evolve. Who knows? Maybe the microbutton will even make a comeback!

Standard Ad Sizes (in pixels):

Rectangular/pop-up ads
Medium Rectangle: 300 by 250
Square Pop-Up: 250 square
Vertical Rectangle: 240 by 400
Large Rectangle: 336 by 280
Rectangle: 180 by 150

Banner/button ads
Full Banner: 468 by 60
Half Banner: 234 by 60
Micro Button: 80 by 15
Micro Bar: 88 by 31
Button 1: 120 by 90
Button 2: 120 by 60
Vertical Banner: 120 by 240
Square Button: 125 square
Leaderboard: 728 by 90

Skyscraper ads
Wide Skyscraper: 160 by 600
Skyscraper: 120 by 600
Half Page Ad: 300 by 600

Links:

As they say in real estate, it’s all about “location, location, location.” Who you link to and the types of sites where your links point to say a lot about your website.

Generally speaking, search engines interprets a link as a ‘vote’ for the site it points to. In addition, they also analyze the pages that links to a site. In other words, a link from a good page on a good authoritative site counts ‘more’ than a link from lesser location. And while you can’t control who links to you, you do have control over who you link to.

Why is who you link to important? Because if you link to a ‘bad neighborhood’ website, you are, basically, vouching for it. In other words, you put your site’s credibility on the line with each outbound link. Simply linking to bad neighborhoods could entail a penalty to your own site rankings. If you’re into link exchanges or you sell direct links, be very careful about who you link to.

Unless the theme of your website matches, you should generally avoid exchanging links with link farms, adult, pharmacy, gambling or online casino sites. These are the sites that can constitute ‘bad neighborhoods’. Because such sites are prone to spamming, search engines will likely reduce link value — and, again, possibly penalize your site just for linking to them.

PageRank and the link popularity of a site is a good measure of how a site is viewed. Although these factors can sometimes be manipulated, you can usually get a good idea of how trustworthy a specific page might be by checking these variables.

That’s why you need to know all you can about your link partners, so you won’t finding yourself associated with a bad neighborhood.

The goal of WebAdClassifieds.com will be to help create a more open and secure marketplace for link and sponsorship opportunities of every stripe.